The Liverpool skyline tells an exciting story for city

LOOKING up at the city centre skyline it is impossible to miss the myriad of cranes that now dominate the view - what an impact winning the European Capital of Culture for 2008 has had for Liverpool.

The number and breadth of building projects now under way is almost overwhelming.

The most eye-catching from the top of Paradise Street multi-storey car park is the £850m Grosvenor scheme which is truly massive.

This combined with the Met Quarter scheme will put Liverpool right back on the map in terms of offering a quality retail shopping and leisure experience.

It doesn't just stop at retail, there are a number of new office schemes currently in progress: work is now under way on a 300,000 sq ft St Paul's Square scheme and the 144,000 sq ft City Square development is now nearing completion.

Tie this in with the £60m Rumford Development, which offers a mix of 16 storey offices and a 27-storey residential tower, you can see that words such as "renaissance" and "regeneration" are not misplaced in the city centre.

Demand for residential development is still strong - the 26 storey Alexandra Tower and the City Lofts development down at Princes Dock are evidence enough. The latter projects are just two of a number of schemes at Princes Dock and Kings Dock. Also under construction is a new Malmaison Hotel and work has begun on an arena and conference centre which are due to be completed prior to 2008, with two hotels and a further 1,800 apartments, offices and shops to be constructed starting post-2008.

Much has been said about the state of the hotel market in Liverpool with endless comments about occupation rates. However, the industry has remained bullish throughout and this is borne out by the fact that for the annual Mathew Street Festival at the end of August, all the hotels in the city were fully booked.

It is an exciting time, not only for the property specialist in our department but also for our planning, construction and environmental teams who are all involved in the projects that are literally rising out of the ground before our very eyes.

Here's what it will look like with Beetham West Tower,Alexandra Tower and the Lime Street Gateway Tower built.

I should have posted this with my original post so here's the other end with the completed Kings Dock arena and appartments.There are many more schemes in the pipeline waiting for approval so let's hope they get a move on hey.

It the truth just think...
Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, any other city you wish to mention have maybe one or two things that you might remember as a feature
but look at the skyline of Liverpool.
Nowhere comes close.

" If you know your history, then you would know where you coming from".

"I could have been a footballer - but I had a paper round"..Yosser Hughes

It the truth just think...
Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, any other city you wish to mention have maybe one or two things that you might remember as a feature
but look at the skyline of Liverpool.
Nowhere comes close.

I think they know it but they'll never admit it,Liverpool is instantly recognisable to everyone.